The president is a piece of work.
And I don’t mean that in a good way.
Since Donald Trump was elected, I have tried to be respectful of the nation’s highest office by limiting expressions of my opinions of Trump. Overall I’ve done fairly well, especially if you consider that this time last year, he was the subject of many of my editorials — mostly in an effort to educate people on his platform so they could be informed when they cast their votes.
As I type this column, America is more than 200 days past the general election and roughly seven months into Trump’s term. His know-it-all attitude and off-the-cuff Twitter rants have not changed. As a matter of fact, things have gotten far worse.
Trump is the president of the United States, yet he continues to behave like a child. While his behavior is similar to that of a child, his conduct is also indicative of an extremely spoiled person who scoffs at authority and is used to having things his way, regardless of what the policies, procedures or any other governing entity say.
Trump clearly is unstable. His actions are embarrassing, disappointing and downright hurtful to this country.
If Trump is not attacking foreign leaders or making false accusations, he is spewing ignorance and hate wherever he goes. One of his most recent instances of insanity was during the Boy Scouts of America’s 2017 National Scout Jamboree. The Jamboree is one of scouting’s most important events, drawing crowds in the tens of thousands, yet Trump used the opportunity to talk politics and to discredit his former opponent Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, which elicited boos from the crowd — boos that he encouraged. Trump also talked about his win last November, “fake news” and the need for more loyalty.
The fact that Trump addressed the Boy Scouts doesn’t bother me, but what is a concern for me is the Jamboree was not the venue to discuss such topics. Trump was in front of 40,000 scouts, most of whom were teenagers. The president could have used that opportunity to uplift the scouts, talk about the importance of one’s character, or simply just provide comments that were positive rather than accusatory. People on both sides of the political aisle can say what they want to about Obama, but he was always cognizant of his audience and he also maintained professionalism and he promoted positivity consistently. Such characteristics are becoming of a president. The characteristics that Trump has are a disgrace to the American people, and his actions promote a type of behavior that does not live up the creed of the United States.
We should want our children to be kind and treat others with respect. A lot of the toxic things coming out of Trump’s mouth only make us more divided. The people that he is surrounding himself with have a strong history of separatism. That is not the America I have always known.
It saddens me to see that Trump does so many things that illustrate who he really is — things like exhibiting his arrogance, his disdain for rules and his ability to fire anyone who refuses to be his puppet. Despite these negative, but telling, efforts of Trump, he continues to remain in office. Republican lawmakers continue to support him because of party loyalty, rather than doing what is right for the folks in their constituencies.
Something has to be done, but at this point, I doubt that anything will occur. In the meantime, we must continue to do as Michelle Obama so eloquently suggested: “When they go low, we go high.”
